L'Équipe Mondiale

Afrique

Joy Akapa is a dynamic young lady dedicated to achieving the best results in any given situation. She holds a degree in Accounting from the Lagos State University in Nigeria. In 2008, she qualified as a chartered accountant under the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and has practiced her profession in three different companies including service oriented organizations. She is presently the financial Manager for Ashoka Anglophone West Africa.

Gillian joined Ashoka Southern Africa in 2010, drawn by her passion for Social Entrepreneurship. While in pursuit of her Bachelor’s degree, she took up the full time role as the Finance and Administration Manager and has since grown into the Ashoka family. She provides logistical support for all programs. She was born and raised in Zimbabwe and has a passion for travel.

Josephine Nzerem is a Social Entrepreneur who was elected an Ashoka Fellow in 2002 for her innovative work in the protection of women from disinheritance and other socio-economic abuses. In 2004 she received an award from the Junior Chambers International as the outstanding young person for the year, in the area of contribution to children, world peace and/or human rights. Josephine believes that women’s human rights must be recognized and upheld at all times. In 2011, she became the Regional Director of Anglophone West Africa.

Adaoha Onyebuchi is an Entrepreneur. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Estate Management from the University of Lagos. In 2012 she joined Ashoka Anglophone West Africa as a volunteer, working as an Administrator and assisting in the search and selection of system changing social entrepreneurs. Prior to joining Ashoka she worked as an Estate Surveyor, maintaining High class Facilities and connecting prospective buyers to stakeholders. In 2014 she became a full staff with Ashoka, working as the Frame-Work Change leader.

Vincent is the founder of Informed Mashinani, a Youth Serving social enterprise working with young people to solidify their role in areas of leadership, policy influencing and socioeconomic development. Some of the sectors he has worked in include education where he developed a leadership and life skills program for beneficiaries of a scholarship program he was managing and in social service where he led the development of a model exit plan for children in charitable children institutions amongst other initiatives.

Limbani joined Ashoka Southern Africa as a volunteer in 2012 while she was completing her studies in Public and Development Management at the University of Witwatersrand. She then moved on to manage the Venture and Fellowship programs for 2 years after which she transitioned into the current position of EACH Leader for Southern Africa. Born and raised in malawi, Limbani has amassed experience working in the Corporate finance sector as well as the citizen sector in various African countries.

Born and brought up in the Coastal town of Mombasa in Kenya, where not many young girls went past primary school. Peris knew from a young age that she had to change that, by being a role model to other girls and youth in her home town and create opportunities for others to also succeed. She informally taught neighborhood children while still in primary school and led many other ventures. Currently she runs a Public Benefit Organization, Asilia Africa focused on improving Reproductive Health Services for marginalized and vulnerable women as part of reducing maternal morbidity and mortality.

Africa Region

Asie de l'Est

Strategic and financial sector professional with over 16years in Non-Profit sector in South Korea.
Industry background includes developing strategy, designing field projects, planning budget, financial services and analysis. Has controlled an overall budget up to $200m as finance team leader and held a strategy execution (program &amp; operation) accountability for over 20 domestic branches including HQ and 2 oversea regional offices as a strategy specialist. Now, I am working for Ashoka Korea as a director of Finance & Operations.

After completing her degree at the London School of Economics (LSE), Elena has worked within organizations in a broad array of sectors and contexts including communications and public affairs at Weber Shandwick, Volvo CE, Nutrition Third World (NTW), and as a diplomat for El Salvador in Sweden and Belgium. As a diplomat, she was responsible for all relations between Swedish and Nordic NGOs as well as EU and commercial affairs, bringing governments and Chambers of Commerce together with the business and investment community.

Arianna is Europe Network Manager for Ashoka Changemakers, a role that involves framing, convening and igniting communities of social innovators across European countries. As such, she is involved in a number of Ashoka UK and Ashoka Changemakers partnerships (UBS, Unilever, C&A Foundation, Boehringer Ingelheim) coordinating efforts to build and grow networks of social entrepreneurs and managing partners relationships at the local level.

Maja Frankel joined Ashoka in December 2011 to launch and be the Director of Ashoka Scandinavia. Maja is a life-long social entrepreneur: At age 16 she became the Sweden Youth Delegate during the United Nations Special Session about Young People’s Rights and at age 18 she became a UNICEF youth ambassador, a role that led her to write a book called 'Vår förbannade Rätt' where she did portraits of 20 young people from all over the world.

Olivier is responsible for the development of Ashoka in Switzerland. He graduated in 2000 from the French management school EM-Lyon and started working in marketing for the private sector. Olivier has been active in consulting and business development in the sustainability area for the last 10 years, working both in the non-profit and private sectors (United Nations, foundations). He also co-founded the associations Ecotour (which promotes innovative sustainable initiatives for the environment) in 1999 and Sustainable Finance Geneva in 2006.

Elena joined Ashoka in 2013 and leads the selection of new Ashoka Fellows as well as guiding them through Ashoka's rigorous election process. She also manages the Ashoka Support Network as well as the Ashoka Learning Journeys. Previously, Elena worked at Convoco - a think tank that seeks to drive social change by convening leaders from business, politics and academia. She also volunteered for the philanthropy consultancy GivingEvidence.

Jamy is a serial social entrepreneur, family therapist and corporate consultant. While working in public youth-care she launched her first initiative in 2002 for out of school youth with criminal backgrounds together with local companies, like KPMG (http://www.be-a-businessman.nl). By having an extended network in Africa and Asia she later scaled her initiative into Child at Venture foundation. Catering to youth in slum areas with business training, angel investments and support and also providing business-planning for local shelters and orphanages.

Fiona is Manager of Communications and Media Partnerships. A third-culture kid, she has roots in Germany, Switzerland, Ireland and the US. During her studies, she led a non-profit selling Haitian artwork to fund sustainable initiatives in rural Haiti. Following graduation she held positions in fundraising at Worldwatch Institute in Washington D.C. and Fountain House in New York, before working for Ashoka Ireland Fellow Steve Collins. Fiona holds a B.A. in Political Science from Vassar College.

Julia joined Ashoka in 2012 to lead our search and selection process for new Ashoka Fellows. Previously, she worked at Global Giving helping grassroots NGOs access crowdfunding, helped set up Move Your Money UK, and worked for an indigenous rights organisation in Ecuador. Julia graduated from Oxford University with a first class degree in Human Sciences. While she was there, she chaired the Environment and Ethics Committee and acted as the founding director of the Oxford Climate Forum. Follow her on Twitter@JuliaKoskella.

Caroline is interested in inclusive finance, impact evaluation and innovative market-based interventions aimed at reducing poverty and inequality. Caroline started her career in finance at General Electric where she worked for four years. More recently, she worked in the Strategic Initiatives team at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and held short-term positions at UNDP in Vietnam and Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Caroline has also been involved in her free time in entrepreneurial activities to promote economic development.

Christina joined Ashoka in April 2013 as the first Operations Manager in the Scandinavian office. She has since then constructed the regions Operations including building the team and structuring the legal framework and financial routines for the region. Christina’s main area of expertise are within HR and operations and since 2016 she splits her time leading HR, and finance in Scandinavia with two global roles as co-integrator and Search Liason for Europe.

Margot joined Ashoka in February 2014 in order to develop a fellowship for international Fellows visiting and scaling in the UK. She is also coordinating events in the UK. Previously, she spent 3 years at Ernst&Young working on financial audits, due diligences and policy evaluations. Margot has a BA in Finance, and a Masters Degree in Entrepreneurship from Paris-Dauphine University.

Marina joined Ashoka in 2007, seeking to catalyze young people's potential to make positive change in the world. Previous to Ashoka, Marina worked for more than a decade with Peace Child International, as a consultant for GEF/UNDP and served as a youth advisor to UNEP in its efforts to engage young people in environmental action. Marina is the founder of FundaciónTierraVida, an organization based in Argentina working to unleash young people´s potential to drive environmental sustainability.

Felicity joined Ashoka in June 2012 to lead on Communications and Framework Change. She works to 'make shift happen', through powerful storytelling, exceptional innovation and the power of brands, corporates, organisations and key people of influence. As the founding member of a technology startup focussing on employee engagement in CSR, her skills combine partnerships, entrepreneurship and 'tech for good'. She's also a trustee for NGO Childreach International, has an MA in Geography, and a real passion for developing creative and value based partnerships.

Displaying her entrepreneurial flair early on, Serena Mizzoni founded a talent consultancy and recruitment firm in 2009. She joined Ashoka Ireland in 2011 as a consultant and was subsequently appointed as Co-Director. In 2014 Serena assumed the position of Director and took a place on Ashoka’s European Leadership Team. Serena regularly lectures on social entrepreneurship at University College Dublin. She holds a B.A. in Human Resource Management and an M.A. in Strategic HR from Dublin City University.

Arnaud Mourot is Co-Director Ashoka Europe. A member of the French team of Olympic wrestling for 10 years and a graduate from ESCP Business school, Arnaud has been involved in the humanitarian sector since he finished his studies. He founded and led the NGO “Play International” (formerly Sport Sans Frontières) in 1999. He has also contributed to the development of various Social Businesses and CSOs in France. He launched the operations of Ashoka France/Belgium/Switzerland in 2005.

Fabienne joined Ashoka to develop the organization’s impact in the German-speaking part of Switzerland with Carol Schafroth. She has always been intrigued by the international cooperation of different actors, which are aiming to achieve progress through improving people’s lives all over the world. This motivated her to obtain a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and a Master’s degree in Development Studies all while volunteering in various organizations such as the Red Cross, euforia and ROCK YOUR LIFE!.

Clarice joined Ashoka in February 2012. After restructuring the UK office Operations, she supported the creation of the Ashoka European Hub in 2014 and since then splits her time leading finance and HR in the UK, and integrating finance teams across Europe and with Ashoka global office in the US. Prior to relocating to the UK, Clarice worked for 11 years with tourism management and destination marketing in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Tours and Clermont-Ferrand (France). She also holds a Master’s degree in Sustainable Tourism Management where she specialised in community-based tourism.

Helga has a background in rhetoric and communication. Her interest in social justice and entrepreneurship has taken her from Norway to Uganda to the US, working in startups, non-profits and social enterprises. She comes to Ashoka Scandinavia after spending the past four years in working first in Houston with the media startup Energy People Connect, and then in Los Angeles with the think tank RAND Corporation, and the combined non-profit and social enterprise Chrysalis.

Rob joined Ashoka in 2011. Prior to Ashoka, Rob founded READ International in 2004. READ is a Tanzanian based, university student-volunteer-led organisation which to date has provided over 1.5 million books to schools and created close to 100 school libraries. He now volunteers his time as Chair of the UK board to support READ’s continued growth. Rob has also co-written a book with his wife Nikki about social entrepreneurs in Africa called On the Up.

Caroline de Cartier

Caroline joined Ashoka Belgium in September 2016 as our newest Programme Manager. She devotes most of her time at Ashoka to the management of the Changemaker’s Schools Programme and the supervision of the team’s daily operations (finances, HR and admin).
After graduating at the Louvain School of Management, Caroline took her first steps in the world of work as a consultant in CRM and Change Management at Deloitte.

Florian Rutsch

Florian manages Ashoka's community of Fellows based, or active, in the UK. He also leads on events in the UK and organises a European wide event in Germany for young social entrepreneurs. Florian's passion and expertise focuses on system change and impact measurement. He holds an undergraduate degree in international economics and a graduate degree in social entrepreneurship, studying in the Netherlands, US, UK, and Kenya. Before joining Ashoka, he worked as a social impact consultant on strategy, organisation, and communication.

Anna Hamilton

Anna joined Ashoka in October 2016 after six years of teaching in both primary and secondary schools in the U.K. and Italy. She became interested in outdoor learning after a year spent managing an Education programme in the Ecuadorian Amazon where she researched and published a text book with the Ministry of Education. She trained with Teach First in 2009 and later worked to combine Science teaching with farming in central London.

Tatiana Cary

Tatiana manages the search and selection of new Ashoka Fellows in the UK. Prior to joining Ashoka she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco focusing on youth development programming and gender equity and helped to launch an incubator for women led small and medium enterprises. She has extensive experience in the NGO sector working as a researcher, journalist, facilitator, and program manager. Tatiana holds an MSc in Gender, Development and Globalisation from the London School of Economics concentrating on gender justice and inclusive economies.

Aroa Fernandez Alvarez

Aroa joined Ashoka in 2013, starting her journey at the Spanish office. There she worked as a Programme Manager for Ashoka’s This Works partnership, bringing entrepreneurial solutions to unemployment in Southern Europe. She was also the Finance Manager for the Spanish office. In January 2016 she moved to London, where she now works as Finance, Operations and Partnerships Manager. Aroa holds a degree in International Relations with a focus on sustainable development and international security.

Mark is a member of the Leadership Group at Ashoka, based in London. As European Director, he is responsible for Ashoka’s 15 offices across Europe, which support a vibrant and rapidly growing network of over 500 Fellows, as well as more than 50 Changemaker Schools and universities. Since 2007, Mark has been a Senior Advisor to Ashoka on social finance. He became UK Director in 2011, and European Director in 2014. Prior to joining Ashoka, Mark founded Chelwood Capital, a global social investment advisory firm, which he continues to actively manage.

Ezgi Dahlberg

Ezgi holds a Master's degree in environmental studies and sustainability science, and a Bachelor's degree in environmental engineering. Having an environmental background and being particularly interested in active learning methods and non-traditional education techniques, Ezgi researched cases where young students' understanding of global sustainability challenges significantly improved by hands-on learning practices. Before joining Ashoka, Ezgi worked with different NGOs and environmental companies in South Africa, Turkey, Sweden and USA.

Julie Auffray

Julie joined Ashoka in 2015 and leads the search and selection of new Ashoka Fellows in France. She came to social entrepreneurship through participating in the Enactus program when she was still a student. She then volunteered in a Filipino inclusive business. She is graduated from Grenoble School of Management, that has the particularity to focus on the Management of Innovation.

Emma holds a Master’s Degree in International Business and Politics from the Copenhagen Business School. Her passion for driving social change has led her to engage in several initiatives focusing on sustainable development and social change. Prior to joining Ashoka, Emma was part of establishing a sustainability-consulting firm in Stockholm, where she spent most of her time managing a business network which gathered business leaders to learn and act around climate change.

A serial entrepreneur, active in the social and business arena since 1998. Proven track record of leading transformative initiatives, from inception to an impactful execution. Basing my work on both social values and business acumen, I'm a true believer in the power of sustainable social entrepreneurship to drive true change.
I founded numerous socially-focused initiatives.

A public policy expert focusing on energy and sustainability by training, I've always focused, in my various professional engagements, on producing long-lasting positive change in Romania. I worked for large international organizations (World Bank), multinationals (OMV Petrom, Deloitte), national governments and think tanks. I've done trainings on public policy, energy policy and corporate governance and I am the co-author of a textbook on public policy for civil servants.

Erlijn holds a Master in Industrial Engineering & Management Sciences from the Technical Univerity of Eindhoven and a Masters degree in South East Asian language and culture at the University of Leiden. She started her career in the corporate sector, working as a financial and strategic advisor for major Dutch companies like ABN, KLM Dutch Airlines and the national government. In 2006, she co-founded Microcredit for Mothers, a foundation catering to the poorest of the poor women in Southeast Asia, reaching out to thousands of families.

After graduating the University of Leiden with a Liberal Arts BA and obtaining an MSc from the University of Amsterdam with a degree in Sociology: Migration and Ethnic Studies, Maxime worked with asylum seekers and refugees and assist in their social and legal integration and teaching English as a second language. Coming from a family of educators and passionate about changemaking, joining the Ashoka Youth Years team has been a great experience.

I am a social entrepreneur and I get inspired daily by the possibilities of this era. My entrepreneurial spirit grows when I encounter injustice, see opportunities and, in particular if the problems seem to be so complex that we needs to solve them outside existing frameworks.
I am founder of several initiatives. Two years ago Ashoka rewarded me with a fellowship. My fellowship was because of my efforts and results with Young in Prison. I founded the organisation Young in Prison in 2002 with the believe that the world needs to urgently rethink its definition of juvenile justice.

In my role as Community Builder I am responsible for strengthening connections between all members of our network, while developing new partnerships, in order to facilitate further positive social change.
Before joining Ashoka, I worked as a consultant for Think Beyond, a global Sport for Development agency, leading exciting projects with the likes of SAP, BT and ESPN.
Previously, I’ve overseen projects in the athletes’ village at London 2012, delivered educational workshops to thousands of kids across the country, with the equalities charity Show Racism the Red Card, and helped develop

Prior to joining Ashoka in March 2016, Sukhada worked with organizations like Asian Plastic (India) & Tech Mahindra (Netherlands). She has studied Masters in Business Administration with specialization in Finance. At Ashoka she is primarily contributing into financial Policies & Processes optimization & its implementation under Dutch entity in collaboration with Ashoka Global office.

Michela helps co-ordinate and implement programs within the Globalizer Team, across various partnerships within Ashoka. She is part of a team that works to engage social and business entrepreneurs in a process that challenges traditional notions for scaling social impact. Before joining Ashoka she worked as a corporate lawyer in Malta and was involved in local human rights, environment and social business initiatives. She studied International Environment Law and Corporate Law at Cambridge University and is finishing a part-time MSc in Sustainability.

Bureau Mondial

I currently reside in Arlington, VA and have been living in Virginia for the majority of my life. Over the past 5 years, I have been managing IT Infrastructure here at Ashoka. Prior to that, I was an IT Consultant with a small tech company in Washington, D.C. In my free time, I like to organize meetups with all sorts of meetup groups, go on hikes in Shenandoah, meet new people, connect people, and come up with half-baked ideas that may or may not come to fruition.

Since 2010, Thomas has served as Director of the Integrated Technology Initiative at Ashoka where he has focused on transforming the organization’s global, technical infrastructure systems and processes designed to empower Ashoka’s teams around the world. Thomas has over 15 years of experience in the Information and Communication Technology for Development space.

Currently Jason leads Ashoka's Executives in Residence Partnerships worldwide. Previously, Jason led Ashoka's Global People Talent and Architects Initiatives, Ashoka's Learning, Integration & Change on the Integrated Technology Initiatives team, and as Director of Operations for Ashoka's Youth Venture Initiatives. Jason is an Executive Integral Coach, and holds an MS in Positive Organization Development from Case Western, and graduated from Duke University's International Honors Program for Engineers.

Adam joined Ashoka as its CFO from USAID where he was a senior advisor for innovative financing with U.S. Global Development Lab. Prior to USAID, Adam was with The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria based in Geneva, Switzerland where he was managing the innovative financing team, as well as Chairman of The Global Fund's pension fund. Formerly, he was IFC’s Resident Representative in Mongolia managing a US$130M advisory and investment portfolio.

Valeria Budinich is a social entrepreneur with 25 years of experience innovating at the intersection of business and society. As a Leadership Group Member at Ashoka, she founded "Full Economic Citizenship", a global initiative that has enabled over 50 hybrid business models in housing, small farmer agriculture and other industries. Currently, she is launching Ashoka’s Changemaker Economy, a global initiative on the new way of organizing for value creation for the good of all. In 2012, she received the Harvard/McKinsey M-Prize for management innovation for her pioneering work.

Bill

Bill Carter was one of Ashoka's founding Board members. After stepping down from the Board of Directors in February 2009, Bill joined Ashoka as its Everyone a Changemaker Leader for Africa. In this role, he guides Ashoka's overall strategy for our programming in Africa. Before working fulltime with Ashoka, Bill was the CEO of an independent power company, the Long Lake Energy Corporation, that developed hydroelectric, cogeneration and other types of power generation which was sold to public utilities in the US and Canada.

Cynthia leads global partnerships in support of social entrepreneurs throughout the world. Before coming to Ashoka, Cynthia founded and built a children’s and ladies’ clothing business, with product manufactured primarily in the Philippines with distribution to major department stores, mail order catalogs and boutiques throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. Through this work, she had the privilege of working with women in rural villages, helping them transfer their indigenous craft and handwork skills to create globally marketable products.

Bill

As a student, he founded organizations ranging from Yale Legislative Services to Harvard’s Ashoka Table, an inter-disciplinary weekly forum in the social sciences. He launched Ashoka in 1981. He used the stipend received when elected a MacArthur Fellow in 1984 to devote himself fully to Ashoka. In 2005, he was selected one of America’s Best Leaders by US News & World Report and Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership.

Hattie joined the Ashoka U team as the Knowledge Curator in August of 2015. Her work primarily focuses on curriculum design for Ashoka U's online learning experience, the Commons, knowledge product development, and impact measurement. She comes to Ashoka from the field of primary and secondary education, working as a classroom teacher first in Nepal through the Fulbright program and then in the US. Hattie was initially drawn to social innovation and changemaking as a means of addressing issues of inequity that manifest across education systems around the world.

Scott is Ashoka's Global Talent Operations Associate. He first joined Ashoka's Global Search Team in 2014 where he managed Ashoka’s worldwide hiring process and the internship program for the Ashoka Global office. Prior to coming to Ashoka, Scott served as the Local Committee President of AIESEC in Washington, DC and later served as the National Director of Talent Management for AIESEC in Australia. Scott holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Affairs from The George Washington University.

Douglas is the Talent Manager, where he manages recruitment, team development and operations. He's excited to continue building Ashoka as the employer of choice for changemakers everywhere. Doug is originally from Toledo, Ohio and has called Boston, St. Louis, and Jerusalem home prior to spending the past three years in Washington, DC. He has previously been a middle school science teacher with Teach For America, community service program manager and a grassroots organizing consultant.

Claire directs Global Venture and Fellowship, Ashoka’s core program to identify and support leading social entrepreneurs. Claire initially joined Ashoka in 1998 as the Latin America program officer, evolving to take on new leadership roles as Brazil Venture Coordinator, interim Brazil Director and Youth Venture Brazil pilot leader.

Lynsey Farrell is a Senior Change Manager and works with the Global Partnerships and Africa Teams. Since 2013, she has been managing Ashoka's partnership with the MasterCard Foundation, a multi-million dollar grant supporting innovations in youth livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to Ashoka, Lynsey directed American University’s semester abroad program on “Issues in Sustainable Development in Nairobi, Kenya. Lynsey’s experience in Kenya began with a Fulbright student fellowship, followed by doctoral studies in cultural anthropology at Boston University.

Ali Fraenkel

Ali believes deeply in the creation of unique learning journeys, especially as they connect to the transformational role that institutions can play as leaders in emergent changemaking. Ali brings experience in community building, higher education, and transformative leadership to the Ashoka U team. Previously, Ali was based in Boston working with the Learning by Giving Foundation and Northeastern University (her alma mater) to accelerate national student grantmaking opportunities in higher ed and to launch the first-ever MOOC for effective charitable giving.

Monica S. Flores began coding full-time in 2004 and serves as web developer & platform lead for Changemakers.com, where she works with an agile team to channel corporate philanthropy, grants, and micro-finance into social investment & social enterprise opportunities worldwide. She consults on Drupal development, functional specifications, database architecture, wire-framing, reporting, and online community-building. Her unique skill is translating specific business needs into working solutions.

Jocelyn Fong designs and develops tools to help Ashoka Changemakers’ social entrepreneurs realize their potential to create social impact in the world. She sees her role as a facilitator of shared learning experiences that increase innovators’ self-awareness and encourage connections across sectors, borders, and walks of life, including online living toolkits, storytelling workshops, and collaborative trend mapping. A firm believer in the power of individual voice, Jocelyn is also working with youth refugees from Burma to publish a collection of their personal narrative stories.

Erin is Venture Integrator for Ashoka Europe, coordinating the selection of new Fellows across the region. A native of Asheville, North Carolina, she was a field organiser for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign in two states. While working in Ashoka’s headquarters in Washington D.C., she organised collaborations on water, launching initiatives in Africa, Asia and South America. She is a published poet and Artistic Director for Lingo, Ireland’s first spoken word festival. Erin holds a B.A. in Anthropology & Communications from the UNC Chapel Hill, and completed her M.Phil.

Nadine Freeman is Ashoka’s Globalizer Co-Director. She has over 20 years of experience working closely with social entrepreneurs. Through the Globalizer she has helped build and hone an innovative process that places leading social and business entrepreneurs together to develop effective strategies to spread social impact and create long term systemic change.
Before joining the Globalizer team she led Ashoka’s Andean Region and Latin America Fellowship programs, contributing to establishment of social entrepreneurship as a critical field in the region.

Konstanze leads Ashoka in North America and is a member of the Global Leadership Group. She founded Ashoka in her native Germany in 2003, convinced that social entrepreneurship was needed in Western Europe. Thus, she introduced a radically new concept of social innovation and with her colleagues built up the most powerful network of innovators across the continent. She also co-founded the Globalizer, an initiative re-defining what we mean by scale. She became Ashoka Europe’s director in 2011, before moving to the US in early 2015.

Sam works as a researcher and strategist in The Ashoka Executive Office focusing on external relationships and partnerships. In his current role Sam oversees the external engagements of Ashoka’s Founder and CEO Bill Drayton, including his participation in large annual events such as the Clinton Global Initiative and Skoll World Forum. Additionally Sam works across teams within the organization, serving as a member of the Global Partnerships Team and North America Fundraising Task Force.

Nimesh joined the Ashoka U team in early 2016 as Renewal Manager. He was deeply involved in experimenting with – and learning from – grassroots engagement and innovation models during his undergraduate years, having co-led the design and implementation of two Innovation Labs in rural Nepal – a collaboration and resource space for community members to come together to design their own solutions to pressing local challenges.

Kris Herbst works for Ashoka as chief editor for the Ashoka.org website. Prior to that he was Director of Community for Ashoka's Changemakers.com web platform, managing creation of content and communications through traditional and social media, as well as a team with members on five continents that mobilized participation in challenges for scaling-up social innovation. Prior to joining Ashoka and helping launch Changemakers.com in 1998, he developed the first websites launched by clients in Washington, DC including the National Press Club and the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Kate has been with Ashoka in a variety of leadership positions since 1999; first finding senior level staff as a consultant for Bill Drayton, then spearheading a new commons creation movement known as Community Greens, and most recently - before her transition to Colorado - leading the Global Talent Team for Ashoka worldwide.

As Campus Partnerships Manager, Sarah-Marie works with colleges and universities globally through the Changemaker Campus Selection Process and helps them hone their strategies for advancing social innovation across the institution. She is innovating the selection process and supporting Ashoka U’s global scaling strategy. In addition, she is part of Ashoka’s Storytelling Council. Sarah-Marie helped launch and currently advises Designing for Social Innovation and Leadership (DSIL), a field-based executive education course in Southeast Asia.

Launched Ashoka’s Learning & Development (L&D) to deepen an organizational learning culture based on and in support of Ashoka’s vision and values of “Everyone a Changemaker”. With a rapid rate of change, in a complex world, new (never experienced before) ways of being, organizing and leading are called for. L&D is pioneering learning journeys for social intrapreneurs & changemakers to embody empathy, new leadership and teamwork.

S. Danielle

Marina’s work in social entrepreneurship dates back over a decade. She started at Stanford University, leading the Future Social Innovators’ Network, the Social Entrepreneurs’ Challenge, and co-founding the university’s first minor in social innovation. Since then, Marina co-founded and leads Ashoka U, working with campuses to embed social innovation as an educational focus and core value of the university culture. Marina’s work has been featured on Forbes.com, Stanford Social Innovation Review blog, in the Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times.

Min-Ki directs Ashoka's strategic planning and advise to Ashoka's leadership team on key management issues. Before this role, he worked as the Director of Strategy & Finance for the Global Venture and Fellowship Program for 4 years. He entered the citizen sector in 2006 as General Manager at Goodwill Industries of Korea, where he established its head office in Seoul, South Korea. Previously, he worked at NCsoft as a finance manager who managed a $350 million budget across seven countries.

Hanook

Hanook is Institution Builder for Ashoka's Finance team, improving systems and processes in order for Ashoka to effectively pursue the EACH mission with its limited resources. Prior to coming to the U.S. for his MBA, Hanook grew up in Seoul and started out his career in finance as a fixed income trader at Deutsche Asset Management, going on to manage large mandated fixed income funds. After several years in finance, Hanook yearned to align his values with his work and decided to set out to fulfill new goals.

Emily is Associate Director of Ashoka U’s Exchange. The Exchange is Ashoka U's annual global convening of visionary university faculty, staff, students, and social entrepreneurs eager to transform higher education into a hub for social innovation and social change. As Associate Director, Emily guides the strategy, annual planning cycle and execution of the Exchange. In 2014, Emily began as an intern at Ashoka U and worked to support various leadership development initiatives within the Ashoka U network.

Johanna joined Ashoka in September 2014 as a European Integrator and is based at the European Hub in London and Ashoka’s office in Washington D.C.. Johanna joins Ashoka most recently from McKinsey & Company in Sweden where she was working for more than eight years in roles such as Manager of Executive Assistants, Recruiter as well as with operations in the role as Executive Assistant to the Swedish and Scandinavian location leaders. Johanna first got involved with Ashoka in Scandinavia on a volunteer basis a couple of years prior to joining us fulltime.

Fangzhou joined Ashoka in September 2014 as a finance intern. She's currently the financial analyst producing monthly financial Dashboard, managing Ashoka's financial planning system - Adaptive, and overseeing East Asia and South East Asia countries. Fangzhou started her career at HSBC as a premier relationship assistant, and has always wanted to participate in social change using her skill sets. Fangzhou holds a Bachelor's in Sociology and Master of science in Financial Engineering.

I work with the Ashoka Changemakers program in the role of Executive Partner. The Changemakers program rapidly accelerates the impact around critical social issues by building and nurturing networks of leading changemakers and empowering these networks to ignite sweeping change in their fields.

As Network Manager at Ashoka U, Ryan is committed to supporting and developing the Ashoka U network of Changemaker Campuses by fostering conversations between campuses and Ashoka, advancing network projects, and sharing knowledge among the Change Teams. Ryan started at Ashoka as a part of the Talent Growth Initiative where he supported I-LEAD and their commitment to advancing education in Philadelphia and Reading, PA. The transition to Ashoka U was a natural fit as a graduate of a Changemaker Campus, Arizona State University.

Dani Matielo has been working with strategies for digital inclusion in Brazil since 2001. She has a firm belief in the power of linking (people, groups, communities, networks), in order to promote deep social change.
Working for the project Acessa São Paulo, a public initiative for digital inclusion conducted by the Government of São Paulo, she participated in the design and implementation of a strategy involving more than 600 telecentres in a network based in community projects called Rede de Projetos (Projects Network).

Dana is the Global Project Manager for the Empathy Initiative at Ashoka, where she oversees the strategy and implementation of the organization’s education framework among a global team of 50+ employees and a constituency of over 200 Changemaker Schools from around the world. Dana was born and grew up in Mexico City and lived in Madrid and Paris before moving to the U.S. in 2009. She is passionate about innovation in education and believes in the power of youth leadership to solve global problems.

Stéphane is Director of Operations for Ashoka Changemakers, where he combines his passions for social innovation, systemic solutions, team-building and community engagement. Stéphane is a 2009 Echoing Green Fellow and founder of Fosfo, a movement to illuminate business behavior and empower ethical consumers. Featured in Forbes and Mashable, Fosfo developed a crowdsourced website for anyone to rate the social or environmental behavior of any company.

Dia Metropolis has worked in Ashoka’s Global Finance department since December 2012. She began her career in General Electric’s competitive Financial Management Program and continued to their intense Corporate Audit Staff, completing financial and process improvement audits of GE businesses in the U.S, the U.K, Mexico, Australia, Norway, and Germany. In 2010, Dia joined the U.S. Peace Corps as an Education volunteer and completed two life-changing years teaching Math in a small rural community in war-torn Sierra Leone.

Stephen (formerly Ashoka's Web Administrator/Developer) is a Digital Properties Strategist with the Integrated Technology Initiative (ITI) team. Stephen builds strategies and shares best practices for leveraging Ashoka's digital communications properties to maximize engagement with changemakers around the world. Stephen has been working for social change for over two decades, and understands the critical role technology plays in advancing the goals of citizen sector organizations. He also has a passion for travel, music, and the outdoors.

Laxmi joined Ashoka over 4 years ago to lead the transition to Everyone a Changemaker with the Framework Change and Global Communications teams. She began by recruiting a senior leadership team, worked with staff around the world to transition strategy internally, and now leads Ashoka's Global Media Partnerships. She is always seeking out or learning about new media innovations. Laxmi is a media development professional with experience working on projects in Canada, India, Rwanda, Mexico and the UK.

Since 2012 I have been working in Ashoka as a Changemakers Senior Finance Manager. Before this role I also served Ashoka finance team and also worked as Director of Finance of Youth Venture Inc. I am native of Nepal - a Himalayan country in South Asia. I firmly believe work place should be a fun place to foster creativity and productivity. I came from a commercial banking background and trying to bring for profit perspective in non-profit financial management.

Reem Rahman works at Ashoka Changemakers as a Product and Knowledge Manager to help anyone with an idea for social change succeed in making a difference. She is passionate about creating open-source tools for learning and designs products to increase collaboration, impact, and sustainability.

Tim

Tim is a Tampa, FL-based Director for Ashoka Changemakers. During his tenure, he has led day-to-day delivery of our Start Empathy, Re-imagine Learning, and Children's Wellbeing engagements, among others. Prior to arriving in Arlington, he served as Innovation Manager for International Bridges to Justice, where he conceptualized and managed collaborative competitions specific to the human rights sector. From 2001 to 2005, Tim served as Communications Manager for GlobalGiving, where he helped launch, publicize, and populate an online marketplace for international philanthropy.

Since Dan joined Ashoka in 2013, he has worked with the Ashoka Support Network global program, currently as a project manager. Beginning in 2016, he took on the additional role of engagement manager for Fabric of Change, a partnership between Ashoka and the C&A Foundation to build a more equitable, transparent and sustainable apparel industry. Dan holds a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and an MBA with a concentration in sustainability management from American University.

Fernanda Mijangos

Fernanda has joined the Global Venture and Fellowship team to manage the finances and support strategy development! Before moving to DC, Fer lived in Colorado where she earned her Global Social & Sustainable Enterprise MBA that helped her better understand social entrepreneurship and realize how she could contribute to the world-wide movement. Originally from Mexico, Fer worked in the construction industry where she created a revolving credit line that helped build low income housing. In her spare time she is an active ocean conservationist focused on sharks.

Gorav

While studying Plant Biology and researching Bio-hydrogen production at UC Berkeley, Gorav developed a keen interest in agroecology and sustainable development. He took this interest out into the world, working on projects in the USA, Honduras, India, Costa Rica, and the Bahamas. In a hiatus from overseas work, he completed his MBA in International Business under the Millennium Fellowship from the George Washington University in 2004.

Henry De Sio is pioneering Ashoka's framework change efforts aimed at facilitating the global societal shift to Everyone A Changemaker™ – with a specific emphasis on preparing our youth to step confidently as innovators and leaders into today’s fast-changing world. Previously, De Sio served as deputy assistant to President Barack Obama and he was the 2008 Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Obama for America. Henry has spent more than a decade teaching, writing, and speaking on the leadership principles that drive individual and organizational achievement.

Bob

Bob Spoer is Chief Enterpreneur for People. A veteran of Silicon Valley search Spoer has recruited business and technical innovators globally for a number of Silicon Valley companies. In addition to LinkedIn, he has worked with Bloom Energy, Trimble and Teknekron. He began his search career with Spencer Stuart based in Hong Kong. “Recruiting for Good”, sponsored by the Linkedin for Good Foundation, enables teams of employees to “crowdsource” the best talent for key executive and technical roles for NGOs on a pro bono basis.

Katie

Katie Turner is an Associate Director, working in Ashoka’s President’s Office and on the Global Partnerships Team. She joined Ashoka in July 2015 after spending 3+ years in Costa Rica where she served as a Community Economic Development Peace Corps Volunteer, as well as helped start a community development organization after her service was complete. Katie holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Business from The College of Charleston and is currently a Master’s Candidate in International Development as well as a Peace Corps Fellow at American University’s School of International Service.

Diana joined the organization after graduating from Brown University in 1988 with a degree in South Asian Studies. As an undergraduate, her year-long study abroad in Varanasi, India led her to see the need for local solutions to solve global problems. This insight inspired her to pursue an internship at Ashoka, where she created one of its core programs, Fellowship Support Services, (now Fellowship) which expanded the resources available to Ashoka’s social entrepreneurs to connect them to one another. She became the President of Ashoka in 2005.

Nancy Welsh is an industry leader with corporate marketing and advertising experience with both Coca-Cola USA and The Kellogg Company. Nancy is a Leadership Group Member at Ashoka and the President of Ashoka’s Youth Venture®, an international network of powerful young changemakers. Nancy holds the country’s first US Process Patent in green construction for her method of building green communities, wholly comprised of rescued, relocated homes.

Stuart Yasgur leads Ashoka’s Social Financial Services (SFS) globally. To date, Ashoka SFS has supported dozens of pioneering Social Investment Entrepreneurs and mobilized over $500 million in funding. Earlier in his career, Stuart was Managing Partner of a New York-based consultancy and has taught at New York University and the London School of Economics. Stuart received a PhD from the London School of Economics, a Master’s degree from Columbia University, and a Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University. To connect with Stuart, contact syasgur@ashoka.org or @StuartYasgur on Twitter.

Qin is the Finance Director for Africa Diamond. With experience working in both developed and emerging markets, she possesses critical knowledge and insights in financial and operational capacities. Before joining Ashoka, Qin co-founded a global culinary school in South Korea and built up exchange programs between Korea and China. She also led a solar energy project in Johannesburg, South Africa during her MBA study. Qin holds degrees from Beijing Technology and Business University, Yonsei University in Korea and Georgetown University.

Rachel Fauber

Rachel Fauber is a strategic communicator, storyteller, internet enthusiast, and Digital Content Manager at Changemakers. Prior to joining Ashoka, Rachel worked in membership communications and social media marketing at the National Institute on Retirement Security and Himmelrich Public Relations, and served on the board of directors of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network of Washington, DC. Rachel holds a Bachelor’s in Mass Communication from Towson University and a Master’s in Social Enterprise from American University.

Lucía joined the Global Talent Team in October 2016 as a Change Manager. Previously, she worked in the academic and social sectors in Europe and Latin America, focusing on social innovation education, entrepreneurship, and leadership development. She’s passionate about supporting others to flourish and realize their personal and professional dreams. Lucía holds a Master’s degree in International Management from King’s College London (UK), and a Bachelor’s degree in Business from Vesalius College (Belgium).

I have worked in Ashoka's Global Finance Department since December 2015. I have a Bachelor in Mathematics and Master's degree in Business Administration. Originally from Russia, I lived and worked in Kazakhstan 18 years. I have over 16 years of experience working as Finance Manager, Business analyst, Business Controller, Accountant in multinational US and European companies that have branches in Kazakhstan. I moved to United States in 2013. I love to travel, read books, drink coffee, and aim to live life creatively.

Rashmi will be working with the Talent & Finance Teams in ensuring top notch US Payroll and Benefits management, fluid team integration and a great user experience in related processes and systems. She will be your go-to person for this important piece of our wellbeing.
Rashmi was born in India where she started a consulting firm and volunteered at orphanages. She was also a lecturer of psychology and organizational behavior and holds an MBA in HR and a BA in microbiology and environmental studies.

Vishnu is the global leader for Partnerships, Planning and Management. He integrates the efforts to build funding partnerships across the 37+ Ashoka offices globally. Also, he is leading an effort to organize the planning and management of the organization towards the “Everyone a changemaker" vision. Vishnu has been an entrepreneur most of his life. His first two for-profit ventures were based out of Singapore and has been involved in launch/relaunch of various Ashoka offices in the Asian region.

Being a program officer for Global Venture and Fellowship, Arjun supports the search, selection and fellowship engagement processes of Ashoka Fellows from all over the world who are both in the process of joining and are already a part of the Ashoka community. Growing up in the Deccan (South Central India) he became aware of poverty in rural communities plagued by frequent droughts and general lack of development at an early age.

Ricardo Anderáos, 54, is a Brazilian journalist, environmentalist and social entrepreneur. Ricardo is the Framework Change Leader for Ashoka in Latin America since December 2015. Previously he was Editorial Director of The Huffington Post Brazil. With 27 years of experience in the digital communications market, was Head of Digital at MTV Brazil, Social Media Director at Abril Group and worked at newspapers like Folha de S. Paulo, Metro and O Estado de S. Paulo.

Flavio Bassi was born in Brazil and grew up in Algeria. He has degrees in Biological Sciences, Public Health and Social Anthropology from the University of Sao Paulo and Université Paris XIII. After taking part of several social movements in Brazil in the fields of land and environment, he founded, in 2002, the CSO Ocareté (www.ocarete.org.br) to work closely with indigenous peoples in Brazil's Amazon, among other ethnic groups. For the past 5 years, Flavio has worked for Ashoka in Brazil and currently leads its operations in Southern Africa.

María José Céspedes leads the Venture and Fellowship initiatives for Ashoka Mexico and Central America, where we identify, select and support leading social entrepreneurs in the region. Before joining Ashoka, María José was executive director at Sanando Heridas A.C., a CSO focused on providing health and education solutions to indigenous communities in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico; and obtained a Master of Development Studies at the University of Sydney, as an Australian Leadership Award fellow.

Hector was born in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. He joined Changemakers and Ashoka Mexico as the Network Manager for Latin America, which combines his interests in social change and understanding what are the incentives that guide human decisions.

Maria Zapata is Ashoka´s Globalizer Co-Director, a program she co-founded in 2009 to help social entrepreneurs scale their impact and to re-shape the field of social scaling. Globalizer has engaged over 1000 CEOs, senior execs and consultants to support 200+ leading global social entrepreneurs to scale their impact.
Maria joined Ashoka in 2003, to launch Ashoka Spain and to support the setup of Ashoka in Western Europe. She has been a key figure in the development of the SE field in Spain.
Prior to Ashoka, Maria worked for GE eight years in the US, UK, Netherlands, Mexico and Spain.

Mirella Domenich

Master in Social management and undergraduated in economics, Vitória has active participation in the third sector, with experience in coordinating social projects. She has served in the administrative and financial area of social organizations with private and public partnerships, especially with municipalities. Other activities in the third sector include integration in Municipal Councils and technical chambers; experience in preparation of environmental projects as well as experience with traditional communities.

Moyen-Orient et Afrique du Nord

Amérique du Nord

Lorena is the Director for the Ashoka Support Network in the US. She joined the Ashoka team in Mexico and Central America in 2008. While in Mexico she co-lead the largest philanthropic effort in the country named “Iniciativa Mexico”. This brought together for the first time in Mexico´s history major communication corporations to invest the largest economic figure into the social sector. In 2009 she launched Ashoka efforts in Miami making it one of the hubs of Ashoka´s efforts.

Romina is the Chief Innovations Officer on the Empathy team. She works on strengthening the network of Changemaker Schools & partners. She joined Ashoka in 2005 working with Youth Venture (YV) to create a strong global movement of young changemakers around the world. Among her many roles at Ashoka she has helped launch & expand YV in Europe and Latin America, has led social media strategies, developed the Youth Summits, and has led multiple media partnerships and campaigns.

Jessica’s focus is on increasing Ashoka U’s breadth of impact. She leads Ashoka U’s thought leadership and digital strategy, refining Ashoka U’s messages to reach new audiences. Based in Ottawa, and as a past member of the Ashoka Canada team, Jess also brings a global lens to Ashoka U’s work. Through partnerships with higher education networks, she is building an increasingly global, and more representative campus network. An accomplished social entrepreneur, Jess has been working on spreading ideas in the social impact education space for more than 15 years.

Fernande has been a serial intrapreneur at Ashoka since 2002. She laid the first foundations for Ashoka in Western Europe, where she introduced the concept of social entrepreneurship, recruited team leaders for Germany and France and launched Ashoka's Social Financial Services program. Upon returning to the US, she established the People Team and since 2015 has been co-leading the launch of Ashoka's Changemaker Economy initiative. Fernande's changemaking passion grew out of her love for history, in which she completed a PhD at Yale.

Paula

Paula Recart is part of the Leadership Group at Ashoka, the most senior level in the organization. She is North America Partnerships Leader and has served as Ashoka US Director in the past. She joined Ashoka in 2007 after 15 years in the media industry in Chile, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the magazine with the largest circulation in the country. During her 9 years of tenure, she led the magazine to one of the top positions in readership and sales, and she oversaw six additional new magazines.

Tara is the North American Director of Communications and Marketing.
I am an effective and inspired content creator with 20 years of experience writing, editing and publishing content for magazines like CosmoGirl, Essence, EBONY, Heart & Soul. I've also edited two critically-acclaimed books for girls, published my own independent magazine and backpacked solo around the world for a year capturing stories of young women changemakers.

When Empathy and Changemaker Schools Director Amy Satterthwaite first read her job description, she felt as if it were written just for her. Amy was already on the same wavelength as Start Empathy: she sees empathy as intrinsic to meaningful social change, and schools as key to embedding it in society. Amy joins Ashoka Canada after over a decade of teaching and working with adolescents in Toronto's public system.
“I’ve always deeply valued the development of social and emotional skills in young people and have made that a core aspect of my teaching practice.

Barb

Executive Director Barb Steele has a knack for bringing out the best in people. Given the talent and impact of Ashoka Canada’s network, Barb—a natural community-builder—has a lot to be excited about. Her next steps: tapping into Ashoka’s global network and showcasing the amazing work of the Canadian Fellows. She is spearheading a Listening Tour with our Canadian Fellows, and is building our new vision from their inspiring insights.
Barb comes to Ashoka after a decade of purpose-based work, building from a prior corporate career in marketing.

Interim Ashoka U Canada Director, Danica Straith has an ambitious goal: to make changemaking education the new normal in Canada. She is one among many in a national network of change leaders putting social innovation at the forefront of higher education. While seeking out and engaging prospective Changemaker Campuses, she continues to grow support among students and administrators alike.
Danica was a changemaking student herself, co-founding a social enterprise between completing her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at McGill.

Simon is the Director of Venture and Fellowship for Ashoka in the United States. In this role he helps identify and support Ashoka's annual class of systems-changing Fellows in the U.S. Prior to joining the U.S. team in 2014, Simon led Ashoka's programs in East Africa for four years and, before that, coordinated a global collaboration of over 100 leading social entrepreneurs focused on rural innovation and farming in Africa and South Asia.

Alex

Alex Vesey is the Venture Associate for Ashoka US. She recently graduated Sarah Lawrence College with a double major in Creative Writing and Latin. At SLC, she founded her campus's Disability Alliance, which grew into a social and activist group for students with disabilities. Since graduation, she has worked at a variety of health and disability organizations, however, she is very excited to branch out and become a part of the broader citizenship sector with Ashoka. In her other life, she writes science fiction and fantasy stories and takes care of an elderly little dog.

Michael Zakaras is Director of Strategy & Partnerships at Ashoka U.S. He is also co-founder of Ashoka’s ‘All America’ initiative which focuses on pushing the boundaries of social entrepreneurship beyond the traditional coastal circles. Michael has previously worked for Ashoka in Ireland and Central Europe, and has participated on selection panels for social entrepreneurs across the globe, from Montreal to Warsaw to Istanbul.

Brittany is the U.S. Fellowship manager. She designs tools, experiences, and opportunities for the community of 200+ Ashoka Fellows based in the U.S. Before coming to Ashoka, she spent three years building out the social innovation ecosystem in Barcelona - including adventures in research, writing, teaching, and start-up-ing. She also has two years of experience working leaders in higher education through the Ashoka U program. Brittany is active in the Washington DC community as an improviser, activist, and dabbling filmmaker.

Tuyet is the Finance Associate for Ashoka in the United States and she has been at Ashoka since February 2016. Prior to joining Ashoka, she worked as the Customer Services Associate for a medium scale construction company and volunteered to help low-income families and individuals prepare their income tax return. She currently holds a B.S. in Finance from the American University.

Annie joined Ashoka U.S. right after graduating from the University of Virginia in 2016, where she majored in Political and Social Thought. She was a Global Citizen Year Fellow from 2011-2012, when she traveled to Northeastern Brazil and worked in a government crisis center and her host family's snack stand. Since then, she has worked on issues of racial and environmental justice, women's rights, and educational equity for minority students in Washington D.C.

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Olina Banerji is a career writer with a keen interest in the development sector. As part of the framework change team at Ashoka India, she looks at engaging with strategic media platforms to drive Ashoka's EACH philosophy with networks both within and outside the fellowship. She pursued a masters in communication from the London School of Economics where her thesis dealt with visual representation of western development ideals in India through an analysis of documentary films.

Nagendra joined Ashoka in October 2010 and is the Finance and Accounts Manager. He has over 24 years of progressive and significant experience in Accounts management and office administration. His key skills include preparation of final accounts, income and expenditure statements, receipts and payments statement, balance sheet, funding and project proposals. Previously, he has handled statutory and internal auditing and income tax and sales tax assessments.

For over 17 years, Sunish has worked in different capacities in the areas of Public Relations, Marketing and Sales and Business Consulting. Before joining Ashoka in June 2011, he worked closely with British and Indian small and medium scale enterprise on market-entry and distribution strategies in technology sectors. Sunish is currently leading Ashoka’s Strategic Resources initiative, setting up an Ashoka Support Network of highly successful business entrepreneurs and also leading the fundraising effort in India.

Jaya joined Ashoka in April 2015 as a part of the Integrated Technology Initiative team. She is a mother of two, multilinguist, Drupal evangelist who started her career as an Analytical Chemist and then a Russian Technical translator and Interpreter and now enjoys development of websites since 2007.

Shevika is a Senior Intrapreneur in the Changemaker Schools program. She previously joined Ashoka to worked on the Health and Nutrition initiative in May 2014. She graduated with a degree in Economics from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. Shevika went on to do the IDEX Fellowship in Social Enterprise after her graduation. The IDEX fellowship placed her in a low-income private school in Bangalore where she worked on setting up a library, teacher training programs and improving the overall quality of education.

Supriya joined Ashoka India in 2010 as the Venture Manager. She coordinates the search and selection process of social entrepreneurs in India and with them, she is helping to build collaborative entrepreneurship platforms in different areas, such as rural innovation, health, education. Having graduated in 2005 from NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad India, Supriya joined a premier Indian corporate law firm, Amarchand Mangaldas, and specialized in securities laws and capital market transactions.

Yashveer has worked with International development organisations on strategy and has been instrumental in launching new projects and starting up entrepreneurial ventures. Prior to this, he founded a youth non-profit to address talent inequity in the development sector and influence youth culture in India by inspiring, and educating university students to pursue social innovation and entrepreneurship. For his work, Yashveer has been recognized in "Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia" list in the year 2016.

Trina Talukdar started working in Kalighat, one of Asia's oldest and largest red light areas, at the age of 18. Her interaction with commercial sex workers spurred her passion to spend her life working on gender empowerment. Trina co-founded a non-profit, Kranti at the age of 22, in Mumbai. Kranti identifies the potential in girls who have been trafficked to become agents of social change, as they have survived the worst social adversities, and have the passion and understanding to solve these social problems.

Rajesh works at Ashoka with the Strategic Resources team. With the goal of building infrastructure for the social space, he is responsible for partnerships with individuals, corporates and institutions for Ashoka and its Fellow network. He comes with strong expertise in corporate fundraising and will be managing Ashoka India's fundraising initiatives.

Shashi is a global leadership group member in Ashoka. In a career spanning two decades he has relied on his entrepreneurial thought leadership to contribute to changemaking – as an award winning investigative journalist, conflict & war correspondent, editor, strategist on campaigns-communications-advocacy, team builder, entrepreneur and analyst on security and strategic affairs. He has held leadership positions in media and non-profit organizations.

Shantanu Paul has been with the Venture and Fellowship team in India since 2016. Originally from Australia, Shantanu came to India through the IDEX Global Fellowship program, an accelerator in Social Entrepreneurship for early stage professionals. Prior to this, Shantanu has worked for aid organizations such as World Vision Australia in various capacities and founded the Save the Children Australia Youth Movement. He started his own organization for Youth Mentorship and Youth Empowerment in Australia and has also extensively worked in the space of Youth Mental Health.

Archana Sinha leads the Health and Nutrition Initiative at Ashoka. Through Nourishing Schools, the initiative aims to develop young changemakers who can take charge of their own nutrition and that of their communities. Prior to joining Ashoka, she was a management consultant with i3 Consulting, a firm founded by ex-McKinsey employees. She led engagements advising clients from industries such as financial services and e-commerce on business development, strategy and setting up new ventures. She is a regular contributor for publications such as Huffington Post and Forbes.

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Sinee Chakthranont has led Ashoka in Thailand for over 15 years developing one of the largest and robust Fellowships programs with over 100 of the organization’s 3,000 globally-recognized social entrepreneurs. She has contributed significantly to the field of social entrepreneurship in Thailand and throughout Southeast Asia by building cross sector networks. Sinee speaks on social innovations and has been regularly featured by national media as an expert commentator. She has been active in Thailand’s civic movement since the historic protests for democratic reforms in 1970s.

Terri

Terri joined Ashoka in 2004 as the Asia Desk Officer based in the Washington, DC headquarters. In 2007, she moved back to Asia to help launch Ashoka’s country offices in Singapore and Manila. She leads Ashoka’s efforts in the Philippines to find and support the most promising local social innovators through a lifetime global fellowship. With a passion for community development, local craft, and design, Terri is also Co-Founder of the local brand, Biyahe. From 2009-2012, she spent time in Singapore and London helping to build young brands in the fields of innovation and social enterprise.

Claudia joined Ashoka Philippines as program associate in the beginning of 2014, when she took an interest in social innovation. Before this, she was with MAKNA or Majlis Kanser Nasional (National Cancer Council Malaysia) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She served in their International Division from 2011-2013, helping them start initiatives in Vietnam and Singapore. In her undergraduate student days, she was an active leader in AIESEC, the world's largest student-run organization, and the President of the UP Children's Rights Advocates League.

Sumitra Pasupathy

Sumitra joined Ashoka in 2015 as the Director for Ashoka Singapore and the launch of Ashoka Malaysia. Sumitra Pasupathy is a social entrepreneur and the Co-founder and Director of Playeum, an innovative education content and service provider centered on creativity for children and families based in Singapore. Playeum is in its fifth year of operation with a strong track record of innovative product and creative partnerships locally and internationally. Sumitra has over 15 years of professional experience in product development and creative content development.